You're on. All 4 debates:
pbs.org
The last Presidential debate:
pbs.org
The relevant text from it:
MR. SCHIEFFER: Mr. President, let's get back to economic issues, but let's shift to some other questions here. Both of you are opposed to gay marriage. But to understand how you have come to that conclusion, I want to ask you a more basic question. Do you believe homosexuality is a choice?
PRESIDENT BUSH: You know, Bob, I don't know. I just don't know. I do know that we have a choice to make in America, and that is to treat people with tolerance and respect and dignity. It's important that we do that. I also know in a free society people -- consenting adults can live they way they want to live, and that's to be honored.
But as we respect someone's rights and we, you know, profess tolerance, we shouldn't change -- or have to change our basic views on the sanctity of marriage. I believe in the sanctity of marriage. I think it's very important that we protect marriage as an institution between a man and a woman.
I proposed a constitutional amendment. The reason I did so was because I was worried that activist judges are actually defining the definition of marriage. And the surest way to protect marriage between a man and a woman is to amend the Constitution. It has also the benefit of allowing our citizens to participate in the process. After all, when you amend the Constitution, state legislatures must participate in the ratification of the Constitution. I'm deeply concerned that judges are making those decisions and not the citizenry of the United States.
You know, Congress passed a law called DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act. My opponent was against it. It basically protected states from the action -- action of one state to another. It also defined marriage as between a man and a woman. But I'm concerned that that will get overturned, and if it gets overturned, then we'll end up with marriage being defined by courts. And I don't think that's in our nation's interest.
MR. SCHIEFFER: Senator Kerry?
John Kerry
SEN. KERRY: We're all God's children, Bob. And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was, she's being who she was born as.
I think if you talked to anybody, it's not choice. I've met people who struggled with this for years, people who were in a marriage, because they were living a sort of convention, and they struggled with it. And I've met wives who are supportive of their husbands, or vice versa, when they finally sort of broke out and -- and allowed themselves to live who they were, who they felt God had made them. I think we have to respect that.
The president and I share the belief that marriage is between a man and a woman. I believe that. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman.
But I also believe that because we are the United States of America, we're a country with a great, unbelievable Constitution with rights that we afford people, that you can't discriminate in the workplace, you can't discriminate in the rights that you afford people. You can't disallow someone the right to visit their partner in -- in a hospital. You have to allow people to transfer property, which is why I'm for partnership rights and so forth.
Now with respect to DOMA and the marriage laws, the states have always been able to manage those laws. And they're proving today, every state, that they can manage them adequately.
BTW, I agree with Kerry here. A constitutional amendment on marriage is absurd. This is a state matter. DOMA allows any state to refuse to recognize a marriage made in another state if it wishes. That should be suffiecint.
Until liberals try to push through an amendment forcing all states to allow gay marriage.
The previous Vice Presidential debate:
pbs.org
MS. IFILL: Next question goes to you, Mr. Vice President. I want to read something you said four years ago at this very setting: "Freedom means freedom for everybody." You said it again recently when you were asked about legalizing same-sex unions, and you used your family as an experience, your family experience as a context for your remarks.
Can you describe then, your administration's support for a constitutional ban on same-sex unions?
VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: Gwen, you're right. Four years ago in this debate, the subject came up and I said then Dick Cheneyand believe today that freedom does mean freedom for everybody. People ought to be free to choose any arrangement they want. It's really no one else's business.
That's a separate question from the issue of whether or not government should sanction or approve or give some sort of authorization, if you will, to these relationships. Traditionally, that's been an issue for the states. States have regulated marriage, if you will. That would be my preference.
In effect, what's happened is that in recent months, especially in Massachusetts but also in California, but in Massachusetts we had the Massachusetts Supreme Court direct the state of -- the legislature in Massachusetts to modify their constitution to allow gay marriage. And, the fact is that the president felt that it was important to make it clear that that's the wrong way to go, as far as he's concerned. Now, he sets policy for this administration, and I support the president.
MS. IFILL: Senator Edwards, 90 seconds.
SENATOR EDWARDS: Yes. Let me say first, on an issue that the vice president said in his last answer before we got to this question, talking about tax policy. The country needs to know that under what they have put in place and want to put in place, they -- millionaires sitting by their swimming pool, collecting their statements, to see how much money they're making, make their money from dividends, pays a lower tax rate than the men and women who are receiving paychecks for serving on the ground in Iraq.
Now, they may think that's right. John Kerry and I do not. We don't just value wealth, which they do. We value work in this country, and it is a fundamental value difference between them and us.
Now, as to this question: Let me say first that I think the vice president and his wife love their daughter. I think they love her very much. And you can't have anything but respect for the fact that they're willing to talk about the fact that they have a gay daughter; the fact that they embrace her is a wonderful thing. |
